April 2, 2013 Dinner – Moules Frites (new recipe)

April 2, 2013 Dinner – Moules Frites (new recipe)

I filed my brief at 4:00 and with a feeling like being released from prison, went to Costco to buy gas and salami.  There were fresh mussels ($2.99/lb.), so I bought a bag of them, and bought a 2011 bottle of Chateau de Thauvenay French Sancerre that I hadn’t seen before ($14.99), a Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc $10.49), a bottle of Oregon MacMurray Pinot Gris ($12.99), a pork tender ($3.29/lb.), a case of Sessions? beer($14.79?). and a wireless mouse (that I am using and enjoying very much).

 When I arrived home, I put the mussels in a large bowl with ice and water to reconstitute and chilled the wine.

When Suzette arrived home a little after 5:30 p.m., I mentioned wanting moules frites and she agreed to prepare the mussels and fry the fried potatoes.

 

Suzette put a stick of butter in a large enameled pan with ½ cup of wine and some Sambucco (Italian licorice flavored liquor), because we did not have Pernod, and about 2 Tbsp. of chopped garlic greens I picked in the garden.  I peeled and pressed four potatoes through a fried potato slicer I got from my Mom that I had never used before (It made beautiful fried potatoes, just like in a diner).  We looked for but could not find our deep fryer, so Suzette filled a skillet to a depth of about 1 inch with canola oil and placed the potatoes into heated oil to fry.

Suzette then steamed the mussels while I chopped about two cups of spinach leaves   When the mussels opened Suzette removed them from the cooking medium to bowls and I started shucking them.  We immediately realized that I had bought immature, baby mussels.  Only a few exceeded 1 inch in length.  I guess this is the beginning of their growing season.  I will never buy mussels before August again. 
Also, the mussels were very dirty, probably because they were pulled from deep in the crevices where they attached themselves, instead of waiting until they grew larger.  So Suzette made an executive chef decision and used PPI crab stock from Sunday’s brunch to make a cream sauce with some of the cleaner mussel stock off the top of the boiling pan and instead of that big bucket of mussels one usually gets with moules frites, we changed the menu to mussels in cream sauce over spinach with fried potatoes.

The broth made by the combination of mussel broth, butter, and wine was delicious and Suzette enriched it with a bit of cream and then made a Bechamel Sauce with it.  I shucked the mussels as Suzette added fresh ones and removed cooked ones from the cooking pot (it took about twenty minutes to steam open and shuck 4+ lbs. of mussels.  When the mussels were all shucked and the Bechamel sauce made (with equal parts flour and butter [about 2 Tbsp. of each makes about 1 ½ cups of sauce] cooked two or three minutes to cook the flour and then emulsified with mussel and crab stock/broth until creamy), Suzette put the mussels into the sauce and cooked it for a few minutes while she removed and drained the French fries on paper towels. 
Then we laid a bed of fresh, rinsed spinach on one half of a large pasta bowl and placed French fries on the other side of the bowl and spooned the creamed mussels onto the spinach side of the bowl to cook the spinach.    

I opened the Sancerre (Wine Note: the front label on the Sancerre included the information “Mis en boutielle au Chateau” and the back American applied label disclosed “Estate grown and bottled”, so this wine is as good as Sauvignon Blanc gets; a wine made from grapes grown, fermented and bottled at a Chateau at Cher, in the Loire Valley in France.  Also, the label had the obligatory notification and certification of being Appellation Sancerre Contrôlée.  So this label is a road map of how the wine got to you that tells you where and how the wine was grown, made, aged and bottled in the Sancerre region in the Loire Valley, without any evasive information, like some of the distributor made wines we have been drinking lately.  Wine like this is a great reason to pay $15.00 for a really good bottle of wine instead of $10.00 for an often lousy bottle of wine.  Frankly, the Chateau de Thauvenay is one of the cheapest legitimately wonderful bottle of Sancerre I have seen in Albuquerque and worth every penny of the price.  Just for fun, I googled the Chateau's name and found the following information.  This is the kind of wine I like to drink, where they put their entire family history and commitment to making great wine on the label and internet.   

 

 

Estate History

The vineyard was planted in 1819 by the Count of Montalivet, defense minister under Napoléon.
The wines were entirely destroyed by phylloxéra in 1880, and then replanted by his grand son, the Baron Arthur de Chabaud la Tour. In 1966, his great grand son, the count Georges de Choulot continued the work and started selling the wine worldwide.
Today, the sixth generation of the family are the owners of the estate and managers of the winery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I looked at the label again and saw at the bottom:

“S.C.E. v Comte G de Choulot de Chaubad la Tour

Propriétiare À Thauvenay (Cher) France”

 I realized the label also disclosed the family’s rank and history and the estate’s name and location, like a welcoming mat.

 

In France there is a lovely wine culture and tradition.  Anyone can go to a winery and taste the wine without charge, if they are serious about buying the wine.  Usually if you like the wine you buy a bottle or two if you are a travelling American and a case or two if you are French.  That is how the wine business seems to work on the ground at the estate/chateau tasting end of the business.  I have had a few embarrassing moments at chateaux where I did not love the wine and made my excuses for leaving without buying wine with it unstated, but implied, that I did not like their wines. 

I guess the part I am still missing is that if you are French and you show up at an estate, you probably have already drunk the wine and love it and are only tasting to see if this year’s offerings are up to the high standard that you were expecting; sort of a silent certification and seal of approval between you and the estate owner.  Because I do not speak French, I miss the small talk that goes on between buyers and estate owners like,"the wine is really good this year".  By the way there is a difference in my mind between an estate and a chateau.  An estate is a wine producing facility, while a chateau is a castle with history and lands.  As seen above, Thauvenay definitely meets the definition of Chateau.

I must mention that this Sauvignon Blanc was silky smooth and very French, with lots of fruity flavor and character and without any California musty or oaky aftertaste or New Zealand citrusy, grassy overtones.  It cut cleanly through the heavy cream sauce of the mussels and washed them and the fried potatoes down nicely.

 The flavor combination of fresh spinach and mussel cream sauce with the French fries was heavenly; especially when washed down with a clean tasting French Sauvignon Blanc that gave only an impression of fruit and alcohol, no added flavor.

After dinner, I ate a bowl of Fruit Salad I made Sunday (mango, kiwi, pineapple, papaya and lime juice) with Greek yogurt for dessert.

Bon Appétit